228 LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



accounted for." In the case of the present species, 

 we see that not even strong powers of flight were 

 able to save the bird from extinction — a fact which 

 emphasises the importance of including the eggs 

 in any protective measure that may be devised for 

 saving threatened species. It has been suggested 

 that some avine epidemic may have assisted in the 

 work of extermination, but of this there is no ab- 

 solute evidence. The fate of the Pied Duck may 

 well serve as a warning to us ; for it shows that 

 when once a species, or the local indigenous stock 

 of a species in any particular country, becomes 

 abnormally reduced in numbers, its tenure of 

 existence is a weak and slender one, and may be 

 destroyed almost without any assignable cause. 

 Several British species are in this position to-day, 

 in that state in which the Pied Duck was not so 

 many years ago, and their fate may be similar if 

 we do not heed the caution in time. Casualties 

 that under more propitious conditions might only 

 have had a local influence, may now cause complete 

 extinction. 



The range of the Pied Duck never seems to have 

 been a very extensive one. In the breeding season 

 the bird appears to have been confined to Southern 

 Labrador, and during winter to migrate along the 



